Report: Henry Paulson Tipped Hedge Funds About Fannie, Freddie Takeover

We’ve been following the reporting Bloomberg Markets Magazine has been putting out over the past few days. They’ve gotten a load of documents through Freedom of Information Act requests and found that the U.S. Federal Reserve had committed $7.7 trillion to rescuing big banks in 2009. Today, the magazine dropped another big story: Henry Paulson, [...]

Barney Frank’s Two Top Goals: Protecting Wall St. Reform, Social Spending

Rep. Barney Frank, the long-time liberal voice (and a fast-talking, brusque one at that) who announced he won’t be running for re-election, discussed with NPR’s Guy Raz, co-host of All Things Considered, the items of unfinished business he plans attend to during his remaining year in Congress. “Well, there are exactly two. One, protecting the [...]

For Two Old Teammates, Risks Of Loyalty Are Real

It is not uncommon for outstanding athletes to succeed in later life, but it is rare for teammates, literally playing side by side, both to be in the spotlight almost half a century later. But such is the case with two old boys from Syracuse, who were roommates as freshmen, went on to become the [...]

A Dissolving Fruit Sticker That Claims Soap Superpowers

Scott Amron really doesn’t like peeling those little stickers off fruit from the grocery store. “They’re pesky and annoying and they create waste,” he tells The Salt. So, he decided to do something about it. “I thought [the labels] could serve some sort of secondary purpose rather than being thrown away,” says Amron, a New [...]

Cracking The Poached Egg Code

For years I kept an embarrassing culinary secret: Poaching eggs terrified me. I could handle other egg dishes fine. I could make crepes and custards like a champ, bake a beautiful quiche, cook soft and creamy scrambled eggs, even turn out a decent omelet, but the thought of plunging a naked egg into boiling water [...]

Bringing Audi Back, For A Younger Audience

Despite the sluggish economy, it’s been a pretty good year for luxury carmakers. Deluxe brands such as Mercedes, Volvo and BMW have seen double-digit growth. But the German carmaker Audi is the standout. It’s seen a near tenfold growth in the past 20 years, and the company has also become the new status car for [...]

If Herman Cain Quits The GOP Race, Where Will His Supporters Go?

Herman Cain’s decision to reassess the status of his Republican presidential campaign in the wake of allegations he engaged in a long-term extramarital affair raises questions beyond will-he-or-won’t-he drop out. One of the big ones? Which candidate in the still-crowded GOP field would benefit most if Cain ends his White House quest? We put that [...]

GOP Governors Hedge Bets On Health Insurance Exchanges

Obama administration officials have announced another round of grants to states to help build the insurance marketplaces, called “exchanges,” that will help individuals and small businesses buy health insurances beginning in 2014. But the real news is who’s getting the $220 million. Nine of the 13 states in this round of grants are headed by [...]

Political Affairs Now An Open Book

There’s a difference between news that’s in the public interest and news that the public is interested in. But that difference has been eradicated when it comes to sex scandals involving presidential candidates. There was a time when affairs involving candidates for the nation’s highest office was not generally considered a fit subject for media [...]

Fahrenheit 451: What’s The Temperature At Which E-Books Burn?

From our How To Do Everything podcast: Today, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 was released as an e-book for the first time. If you’re not familiar, it takes place in a dystopia where firemen burn books — 451 degrees being the temperature at which they catch fire. But what about e-Books? Theo Gray, a columnist with [...]